Tuesday is the centennial of the birth of Jean Dubuffet, one of the most prolific artists of the 20th Century, who had a particularly fruitful relationship with collectors and artists in Chicago. It was here, after all, that he found his first and most active collector in the United States and, 50 years ago this December, gave a lecture that became one of the key aesthetic documents of the postwar period, encouraging Chicago artists in a direction that for more than a quarter...

New York's Guggenheim Museum has dug into its extensive collection of 20th-Century modern masterworks to produce "From Picasso to Pollock: Classics of Modern Art," a recently-opened 130-work exhibition running through Sept. 28. Featured in this show is a new installation of Joan Miro's famous 1965-1967 mural "Alicia," extending over 190 ceramic tiles and painted in the red, black and blue colors he favored. Another highlight is a collection of watercolors by Vasily...

- A Metro story Wednesday reported that a motorcyclist was found dead in Des Plaines up to five hours after an accident at 4 a.m. Tuesday. He was found shortly after the accident by a passing driver. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead by officials in the medical examiner's office, not the police as reported. - A painting in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, "Supervielle," a large banner portrait by Jean Dubuffet, was misidentified in the Tempo section...

Czech outsider artist Anna Zemankova (1908-1986), and her biomorphically inspired drawings "I am growing flowers not grown anywhere," are but one facet of a new show called "Eight from Europe: A Study Collection" at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Curator Eugenie Johnson decided to pull together the show as a counterpoint to previous American Masters shows at the center that featured the best self-taught artists in this country....

The Art Institute of Chicago has sold six works of art from its permanent collection at auctions this week in New York for a total of $15.46 million. The works-four paintings, one sculpture, one pastel-are part of a group of 11 pieces that will raise funds for other acquisitions at the museum. The works are: Claude Monet's painting, "Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore" ($6.6 million); Edgar Degas` pastel, "Preparation for the Class" ($4.5 million); Pablo Picasso's painting, "The Reader"...

- A Metro story Wednesday reported that a motorcyclist was found dead in Des Plaines up to five hours after an accident at 4 a.m. Tuesday. He was found shortly after the accident by a passing driver. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead by officials in the medical examiner's office, not the police as reported. - A painting in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, "Supervielle," a large banner portrait by Jean Dubuffet, was misidentified in the Tempo section...

- A story in Feb. 11 Du Page editions about the GOP primary race for nomination for the Illinois House seat in the 39th District mistakenly gave the first name of candidate Richard Castic as Edward. - A story on the front of the Feb. 12 Business section misidentified the state office held by Dawn Clark Netsch. She is the state comptroller. - The caption with a photo in some final editions of the Feb. 12 Chicagoland section was omitted. The photo depicted a couple...

Tuesday is the centennial of the birth of Jean Dubuffet, one of the most prolific artists of the 20th Century, who had a particularly fruitful relationship with collectors and artists in Chicago. It was here, after all, that he found his first and most active collector in the United States and, 50 years ago this December, gave a lecture that became one of the key aesthetic documents of the postwar period, encouraging Chicago artists in a direction that for more than a quarter...

The Museum of Contemporary Art, 237 E. Ontario St., has a permanent collection of about 3,300 objects, only a small percentage of which can be shown at a time. A proposed new building on the site of the Chicago Avenue Armory will increase the number of works on view, but until then-scheduled completion date is 1995-the museum will continue to mount concise exhibitions in one or more galleries of its annex. The current show, "Realism, Figurative Painting, and...

One of the most popular art exhibitions ever to be shown in England, "Victorian Fairy Painting" (no laughter, please -- it's delightful), has moved from London's Royal Academy of Art to New York's prestigious Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. (212-288-0700), where it will be on view from Wednesday through Jan. 17. Whether inspired by Shakespeare's plays, the myths of antiquity or fairy tales familiar and obscure, these 30-odd paintings and works on paper range from the endearing to...

New York's Guggenheim Museum has dug into its extensive collection of 20th-Century modern masterworks to produce "From Picasso to Pollock: Classics of Modern Art," a recently-opened 130-work exhibition running through Sept. 28. Featured in this show is a new installation of Joan Miro's famous 1965-1967 mural "Alicia," extending over 190 ceramic tiles and painted in the red, black and blue colors he favored. Another highlight is a collection of watercolors by Vasily...

`I like confusion," says French artist Annette Messager, and that as much as anything accounts for the extraordinary reception she received upon coming here to install her first American retrospective in the Photography Galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago. A lecture by Messager last month filled the 285-seat auditorium of the School of the Art Institute, and nearly as many prospective auditors had to be turned away--which surprised even the artist, whose work has brilliantly confounded attempts at...

More than 200 Chicago-area artists, including the one whose American flag exhibit incited a storm of controversy earlier this year, joined a nationwide protest Saturday against a Senate measure that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support art that is considered obscene. Carrying signs that read "Down With The Senate Art Police" and "Stop the War on Art," the demonstrators, many of them painters and sculptors, gathered in front of the State of Illinois Center to...

Rising 24 feet above the lawn fronting the chemistry building, the giant arm of Jonathan Borofsky's "Hammering Man" moves up and down in an endless rhythm. Across the lake, three volcanic rocks chosen by Michael Heizer for "Elevated, Surface, Depressed" sit on aluminum platforms drawing weeds to their craggy surfaces and scorn from students who ask, "Is this art?" Above the main plaza, Joan Miro's strange, horned "Oiseau" stares down from its perch while Isamu Noguchi's primal granite "Man" stands to the...

One of the most popular art exhibitions ever to be shown in England, "Victorian Fairy Painting" (no laughter, please -- it's delightful), has moved from London's Royal Academy of Art to New York's prestigious Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. (212-288-0700), where it will be on view from Wednesday through Jan. 17. Whether inspired by Shakespeare's plays, the myths of antiquity or fairy tales familiar and obscure, these 30-odd paintings and works on paper range from the endearing to...

One of the more curious exhibitions in town presents new works by John Broenen, at Perimeter Gallery, 750 N. Orleans St. Broenen's love for found objects and interest in outsider art has led to a sculptural installation and several wall pieces made from such organic materials as apple cores, orange peels and grapefruit skins. The artist has combined these substances with more orthodox materials-pigment, aluminum, paper-to produce figurative works redolent of Haitian metal cutouts as well as early paintings by...

One of the more curious exhibitions in town presents new works by John Broenen, at Perimeter Gallery, 750 N. Orleans St. Broenen's love for found objects and interest in outsider art has led to a sculptural installation and several wall pieces made from such organic materials as apple cores, orange peels and grapefruit skins. The artist has combined these substances with more orthodox materials-pigment, aluminum, paper-to produce figurative works redolent of Haitian metal cutouts as well as early paintings by...

Outsider Art is at a crossroads. The art world is addressing phase two of Outsider Art-"the appraisal phase of sifting and sorting, which cuts to the problem of good, better, best," says Michael Hall, co-editor of a new coffee-table book "The Artist Outsider: Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture" (to be published by Smithsonian Press in February). According to Hall, Outsider Art is "the perfect politically correct art to collect. It's multicultural and pan-cultural. . . . It's a social vector that's...

Czech outsider artist Anna Zemankova (1908-1986), and her biomorphically inspired drawings "I am growing flowers not grown anywhere," are but one facet of a new show called "Eight from Europe: A Study Collection" at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Curator Eugenie Johnson decided to pull together the show as a counterpoint to previous American Masters shows at the center that featured the best self-taught artists in this country....

In addition to a tinge of nostalgia, former Gov. James R. Thompson will feel a sense of vindication Monday when the State of Illinois Center is named to honor the state's longest serving chief executive. The landmark glass-and-steel edifice at Clark and Randolph Streets symbolizes the 14-year, four-term Thompson era better than any other building or statue could possibly hope. It is big, colorful and controversial. People either love it or they hate it. Sometimes it...